Dartmouth Applications Drop After Tumultuous Year of Protests

Students walk on the campus of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth has long struggled with its fraternities, which have had many powerful alumni as members. Photographer: Cheryl Senter/Bloomberg

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Applications to Dartmouth College
dropped 14 percent after a student outcry over sexual harassment
and reports of fraternity hazing last year led its new president
to try to improve campus life.

Dartmouth said it would begin a study of the applications
decrease, which was deeper than a 2.1 percent drop-off reported
by Harvard University last week.

“While we are thrilled to have another exceptionally
strong pool of potential students, we take the decline in
applications seriously and are investigating the causes,” Tommy
Bruce, a spokesman at Hanover, New Hampshire-based Dartmouth,
said in a statement released Feb. 7.

Applications for the Class of 2018 fell to 19,235, the
biggest decline in 21 years, said Justin Anderson, a Dartmouth
spokesman. School officials have long failed to acknowledge the
impact of sexual assault and harassment on campus, said Peter
Hackett, a theater professor and a member of Dartmouth Change, a
group of faculty, students and alumni pressing for action on
these issues. In yesterday’s applications report, the
administration made no mention of the campus environment or
reports about it, he said.

“Dartmouth Change said to them that if they didn’t handle
the problem, the problem would handle them, and I’m afraid this
is what’s happening,” Hackett said in a telephone interview.

Campus Culture

Dartmouth has a history of turmoil over race, gender and
campus culture. Students and faculty have protested the
prominence of its fraternities, which they have said foster
binge drinking, violent hazing and sexual assault.

A group of students filed a complaint with the U.S.
Education Department last year against Dartmouth, alleging that
it fails to report campus violence as required by the federal
Clery Act. Later, the department began its own investigation of
Dartmouth for possible violations of Title IX, the law that bars
gender-based discrimination on campus. Inadequate response to
sexual assault is a violation.

Philip Hanlon, an alumnus who became its president last
year after serving as provost at the University of Michigan, has
said he’s committed to making the school a leader in improving
campus life. The college has centralized resources for victims
of sexual assault and is adding a residence hall for lesbian,
gay and transgender students, while the Greek system on campus
has created an inter-fraternity network on sexual assault.

Greek System

Any effort to change the campus environment at Dartmouth
has to start with an examination of the school’s Greek system,
in which about two-thirds of sophomores, juniors and seniors are
involved, said Susan Struble, a 1993 graduate who is also a
member of Dartmouth Change. Hanlon, a former member of
Dartmouth’s Alpha Delta fraternity, has said he believes the
organizations contribute to college life.

“Some might be quick to point to our location, or the
public debates about affordability and the quality of student
life that affect many college campuses, including our own,”
Bruce, the college spokesman, said in the statement. “The fact,
however, is that there are broader issues, from demographics to
the rising popularity of pre-professional programs in the wake
of the financial crisis, that may be playing a substantial
role.”

Applications fell from a peak of 23,110 two years ago,
after steadily rising for the past decade. Dartmouth said this
year’s pool was more diverse, with students of color accounting
for 37 percent, while about 70 percent of all applicants said
they would need financial aid. The school also said applicants
had the highest average SAT and ACT test scores ever and that 80
percent of them were in the top 10 percent of their high school
classes.

Advanced Placement

Beginning with the Class of 2018, Dartmouth will no longer
accept high-school Advanced Placement courses as credit toward
graduation. Since a number of potential Dartmouth applicants
probably took these courses, some of them would be discouraged
by the change, said Jack Maguire, founder of Maguire Associates,
an enrollment management consultant in Concord, Massachusetts.

“That could have a profound impact” on application
numbers, Maguire said.

The number of U.S. high school graduates began to fall with
the Class of 2012, according to a report last year by the
Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. Dartmouth
said it received 20 percent fewer applicants from the Midwest,
15 percent fewer from the Northeast and 20 percent fewer from
international applicants. Harvard also cited a drop in
applications from the Midwest and Northeast.

Demographic Changes

“About 80 percent of college freshmen attend college
within 200 miles of their home, and 90 percent remain within 500
miles,” Dartmouth said in the statement. “Given that New
England is losing college-bound population, this suggests that
the application numbers may be a result of broader trends.”

Princeton, Yale and Brown universities and the University
of Pennsylvania saw increase in applications, with Penn
reporting a 14 percent gain. Columbia and Cornell universities
have yet to release data.

Dartmouth canceled classes one day last April after some
students were targeted by online threats following a protest
against homophobia, sexual assault and racism disrupted an on-campus event. In place of the classes, the college held speeches
and teach-ins designed to foster debate that promotes respect
and civil discourse.

While protests and meetings have been plentiful, the campus
environment and its reputation remain issues that must be
addressed, said Andrew Longhi, a senior and editor of the
Dartmouth Law Journal, an undergraduate publication.

“This is something that reaches far outside Dartmouth and
affects the kind of students we’re attracting,” he said in a
telephone interview.